Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the final decades of the Roman Republic. As a young man, he was a partisan and protégé of the dictator Sulla, after whose death he achieved significant military and political success.
A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered into a military career at an early age. He rose to prominence serving Sulla as a commander during the civil war of 83–81 BC. His early success as a general allowed him to bypass the traditional cursus honorum (the sequence of public offices required for political advancement), and he was elected as consul on three occasions (70, 55, 52 BC). He celebrated three triumphs and served as a commander in the Sertorian War, the Third Servile War, the Third Mithridatic War, and in various other military campaigns. Pompey's early success led dictator Sulla to grant him the cognomen Magnus – "the Great" – reportedly in reference to Pompey's admiration for Alexander the Great. His adversaries, however, referred to him as adulescentulus carnifex ("teenage butcher") due to his perceived ruthlessness.
In 60 BC, Pompey joined Crassus and Caesar in the informal political alliance known as the First Triumvirate, cemented by Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter, Julia. After the deaths of Julia and Crassus (in 54 and 53 BC), Pompey aligned himself with the optimates—a conservative faction of the Roman Senate. Pompey and Caesar subsequently came into conflict over control of the Roman state, which led to Caesar's civil war. Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, and he sought refuge in Ptolemaic Egypt, where he was assassinated by the courtiers of Ptolemy XIII.
Early life and career
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was born in Picenum on 29 September 106 BC, the eldest son of a provincial noble called Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo. Although from the dominant family in Picenum, Strabo was the first of his branch to achieve senatorial status in Rome; he completed the traditional cursus honorum, becoming consul in 89 BC, and acquired a reputation for greed, political duplicity, and military ruthlessness. Pompey began his career serving with his father in the Social War (91–87 BC).
Strabo died in 87 BC during the short-lived civil war known as the , although sources differ on whether he succumbed to disease or was murdered by his own soldiers. Before his death, Strabo was accused of embezzlement; as his legal heir, Pompey was held responsible for the alleged crime and put on trial. He was acquitted, supposedly after agreeing to marry the judge's daughter, Antistia.
One of the main issues at stake in 87 BC was the appointment of the consul Sulla as commander of the Roman army in the ongoing First Mithridatic War, an opportunity to amass enormous wealth. During his absence in the East, his political rivals led by Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Gaius Marius the Younger regained control of the Roman Senate. Sulla's return in 83 BC sparked a civil war within the Roman world.
Pompey during Sulla's civil war
In the year before Sulla's return, Pompey had raised and equipped a full legion from amongst his father's old clients and veterans in Picenum. In the spring of 83, Sulla landed in Brundisium. As he marched north-west towards Campania, Pompey led his own legion south to join him. The government in Rome sent out three separate armies in an attempt to prevent the union between Pompey's and Sulla's armies. Pompey attacked one of these armies and routed it. The three enemy commanders, unable to agree on a course of action, withdrew. Soon after Pompey arrived at Sulla's camp. He was greeted by Sulla with the title (an appellation meaning "victorious general").
At some point in 83 BC, it is not clear when, but definitely before the onset of winter, Sulla sent Pompey back to Picenum to raise more troops. When fighting broke out once more in 82, Sulla advanced towards Rome, while Metellus (one of his lieutenants), supported by Pompey, campaigned against the consul Gaius Papirius Carbo in Cisalpine Gaul. During this campaign Pompey acted as Metellus's cavalry commander.
Metellus and Pompey defeated Carbo's lieutenant, the praetor Gaius Carrinas, in a six-hour battle at the river Aesis, only to be blockaded by Carbo himself. When word of Sulla's victory at the Battle of Sacriportus reached them, Carbo retreated to his base at Ariminium, severely harassed by Pompey's cavalry. Some time later, Metellus defeated Gaius Marcius Censorinus, another of Carbo's lieutenants. Pompey's cavalry caught Censorinus's fleeing troops outside their base at Sena Gallica, defeating them and plundering the town. While Metellus remained in the north-west, Pompey seems to have transferred to Sulla's command in the south.
Pompey advanced south-west along the Via Flaminia towards Spoletium, where he joined Marcus Licinius Crassus; together they defeated Carrinas once again. Pompey laid siege to Carrinas in Spoletium, but the latter managed to escape. Pompey resumed his march to join Sulla's command. Not long afterwards, Pompey successfully ambushed another large force under Censorinus, which was trying to get through to Praeneste where Carbo's consular colleague, Marius the Younger (who was the figurehead of the struggle against Sulla), was blockaded. It was the failure of these attempts to get through the Sullan blockade in Umbria and Etruria, added to Metellus's success in winning control of the north, which broke the back of the government's resistance.
At the end of the campaigning season of 82, the government forces made one final effort to march to the relief of Praeneste. They mustered 10,000 legionaries and marched to join forces with the Samnites and the Lucanians, fierce enemies of Sulla, who had campaigned against them in the Social War. Pursued by Pompey, they united their forces and made for Praeneste. Unable to break through Sulla's blockade, they marched for undefended Rome, only to be caught just in time and defeated by Sulla at the Battle of the Colline Gate. Pompey, who was pursuing the government forces, arrived just after the battle.
By the end of 82 BC, Sulla had expelled his opponents from Italy and had himself made dictator by passage of an enabling law, the . Either through admiration of his abilities, or concern at his ambition, Sulla sought to consolidate his alliance with Pompey by persuading him to divorce Antistia, and marry his stepdaughter Aemilia. Plutarch claims she was already pregnant by her former husband, and died in childbirth soon after.
Sicily, Africa and Lepidus' rebellion The surviving Marians escaped to Sicily, where their ally Marcus Perperna was propraetor. They were supported by a fleet under Carbo, while Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus occupied the Roman province of Africa. Perperna abandoned Sicily after Pompey landed on the island with a large force, while Carbo was captured and later executed. Pompey claimed this was justified by Carbo's alleged crimes against Roman citizens, but his opponents nicknamed him adulescentulus carnifex, or "young butcher", as a result.
Pompey now sailed for Africa, leaving Sicily in the hands of his brother-in-law, Gaius Memmius. After defeating and killing Ahenobarbus at the Battle of Utica, Pompey subdued Numidia and executed its king Hiarbas, a Marian ally. He restored the deposed Hiempsal to the Numidian throne. Around this time, his troops began referring to him as Magnus, or "the Great", after Alexander the Great, a figure much admired by the Romans. Shortly thereafter, Pompey formally made this part of his cognomen.
On returning to Rome, he asked for a triumph to celebrate his victories, an unprecedented demand for someone so young. Pompey refused to disband his army until Sulla agreed, although the latter tried to offset the impact by awarding simultaneous triumphs to Lucius Licinius Murena and Gaius Valerius Flaccus. Sometime during this period, Pompey married Mucia Tertia, a member of the powerful Metellus family. They had three children before their divorce in 61 BC; Pompey the younger, usually known as Gnaeus, a daughter, Pompeia Magna, and a younger son, Sextus.
Pompey supported Marcus Aemilius Lepidus as consul for 78 BC; Plutarch claims he did so against Sulla's advice, but some modern historians reject the idea. When Sulla died in 78 BC, Lepidus sought to block his state funeral and roll back some of Sulla's laws, then became proconsul of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul in January 77 BC. When the Senate ordered him back to Rome, Lepidus refused to comply unless granted another term as consul, a proposal that was rapidly rejected. Assembling an army, he began marching on Rome; the Senate responded with a series of measures, one of which was to appoint Pompey to a military command.
While Lepidus continued south, Pompey raised troops from among his veterans in Picenum and moved north to besiege Mutina, capital of Cisalpine Gaul. The town was held by Lepidus' ally Marcus Junius Brutus, who surrendered after a lengthy siege, and was assassinated the next day, allegedly on Pompey's orders. Catulus then defeated Lepidus outside Rome, while Pompey marched against his rear, catching him near Cosa. Lepidus and the remnants of his army retreated to Sardinia, where he died.
Sertorian War
The Sertorian War began in 80 BC when Quintus Sertorius, a prominent proscribed Marian general, initiated a rebellion in Hispania, where he was joined by other Roman exiles like Perperna. Supported by local Iberian tribes, he took control of Hispania Ulterior and repeatedly defeated Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius through skillful use of guerrilla warfare. Sertorius defeated other Roman generals sent to oust him and soon conquered Hispania Citerior as well. Backed by his allies in the Senate, Pompey was appointed military commander in Spain with proconsular authority in order to defeat Sertorius. This act was technically illegal as he had yet to hold public office, illustrating Pompey's preference for military glory and disregard for traditional political constraints.
Pompey recruited 30,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, evidence of the threat posed by Sertorius. En route to Hispania, he subdued a rebellion in Gallia Narbonensis, after which his army entered winter quarters near Narbo Martius. In early 76 BC, he crossed the Col de Portet and entered the Iberian peninsula, where he would remain for the next five years. His arrival boosted the morale of Metellus' troops, while some rebels changed sides, but soon after, he was defeated by Sertorius at the Battle of Lauron,Appian, Bellum Civile, 1.109 losing one third of his army while inflicting next to no losses on Sertorius' army. This was a serious blow to Pompey's prestige, who spent the rest of the year reorganising his army.Plutarch, Life of Sertorius, p. 18 Metellus' failure to dislodge Sertorius and Pompey's defeat meant the senatorial generals made no progress in the year.
In 75 BC, Sertorius led the campaign against Metellus, while Pompey defeated his subordinates Perperna and Gaius Herennius outside Valencia. When Sertorius took over operations against Pompey, Metellus defeated his deputy Lucius Hirtuleius at the Battle of Italica. Pompey faced Sertorius in the indecisive Battle of Sucro, in which Sertorius defeated Pompey's right flank and nearly captured Pompey himself, but his legate Lucius Afranius defeated the Sertorian right. Sertorius withdrew inland, then turned to fight at Saguntum, where Pompey lost 6,000 men, including his brother-in-law Memmius, reputedly his most effective subordinate. Sertorius himself suffered 3,000 casualties, one of whom was Hirtuleius.Appian, Bellum Civile, 1.110